Windscribe VPN
MSRP $9.00
“Windscribe VPN offers a generous, but capped free app, as well as a one-of-a-kind option to build a plan for as little as $3 per month.”
Pros
- Great design with plenty of options
- Gives helpful warnings on app conflicts
- Unique $3/month option to build a plan
- Excellent transparency
- The AI support chatbot is good
Cons
- Unlimited plan costs more than competitors’
- Speeds are somewhat inconsistent
- Free version has a data cap
Windscribe offers a free virtual private network (VPN) and a low-cost subscription plan with a built-in malware blocker, along with advanced features to fine-tune your connection.
That sounds like a winning combination, so I researched and tested Windscribe to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Windscribe has some unique offerings that could make it the best VPN for your needs.
Tiers and pricing
If you’re looking for the best deal on a VPN, Windscribe has a variety of free, low-cost, and premium plans. The free plan might be enough if you rarely need a VPN.
Windscribe’s free version includes servers located in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and Romania. That’s an impressively long list that includes several of the most popular server locations.
For example, the excellent free version of Proton VPN can only connect to the U.S., the Netherlands, and Japan. However, Windscribe caps the free version while Proton’s free VPN has unlimited data.
Windscribe includes 2 GB monthly, but you can increase that to 10 GB if you include your email when you create an account. If you post about Windscribe on X, you get 5 GB more. That means you can get a total of 15 GB of free data each month.
A Windscribe subscription can cost as little as $3 per month, thanks to a unique option to build a plan. It’s $1 per location monthly with an option to enable Windscribe’s malware blocker for another $1. The minimum is $3.
Each location adds 10 GB per month on top of what you’d get with the free version. If you want more than four locations, it’s better to get Windscribe Pro.
To unlock unlimited data and every location, you need Windscribe Pro. It’s $9 per month or $69 annually ($5.75 per month). The monthly plan is one of the least expensive out there, but the annual plan costs more than top-rated VPNs like NordVPN and Proton VPN.
Design
It was easy to install Windscribe’s Windows app and a browser tab popped up to add the free extension that has a proxy with an IP address and malware blocking.
The app opens as a tiny angular window that shows whether the VPN is off or on, which protocol and port it’s using, whether the firewall is enabled, and the IP address that the others will see. When the VPN is off, it’s my actual IP address.
It looks cool, like a gaming widget or futuristic display. A panel that shows server locations slides out the bottom, but I can’t make the window wider. Still, I can quickly browse or search the list to connect to other countries.
If I select a country while browsing, I can see a list of servers to choose from. Windscribe helpfully shows server load for each and indicates which have 10 Gbps throughput.
The top-left menu button reveals plenty of settings for appearance, account details, connection options, blocking, advanced options, and help. I’m usually not a fan of compact VPN windows, but Windscribe’s design looks nice and works well, as long as you’re comfortable with small text.
Features
When I connected Windscribe’s VPN, it warned me of a conflict with Meta’s remote desktop client OVRServer that was increasing CPU usage. That’s the first time a VPN has alerted me to this issue. I closed the Meta app and CPU usage fell from 14% to 5%, which is a nice energy savings.
I ran my usual battery of bandwidth measurements using Speedtest.net to check performance for countries around the world. I started with the server Windscribe suggested as best for my location.
I was disappointed to get only 69 Mbps from a Toronto server with the 10 Gbps symbol and low load. I browsed the location list to find a closer one in Halifax. That bumped my speed up to 157 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads with a 37-millisecond ping.
The fastest speeds I measured were with a server in New York. I was pleased with 451 Mbps down and 27 Mbps up with a 42ms ping. Overseas results were mixed. I checked U.K., France, Germany, and Australia, all of which arecommon choices for streaming videos.
While France was quick at 277 Mbps, the U.K. finished the test slowly with 22 Mbps. I tried a few other protocols to see if that would help and WireGuard was best. Germany matched the U.K. with speed in the mid-20s, but distant Australia surprised me with 136 Mbps.
A few hours later, the same server in Germany measured 267 Mbps, 10 times its previous speed. The wide variance makes it hard to predict what kind of speed I’ll get despite the rating bars, 10 Gbps symbol ,and server load indicators.
I moved on to a test of Windscribe’s Remote Omnidirectional Badware Eliminating Robotic Tool — aka R.O.B.E.R.T. I went to Wicar.org, a malware test website. Microsoft Edge caught the first virus and Windscribe’s malware blocker handled the other 12 threats.
Support
Windscribe support relies on Garry, an AI chatbot for real-time assistance. I conversed with Garry for a minute and found its answers to be helpful. It also understood me well, suggesting Windscribe is using a decent large language model.
Garry suggested all the tricks I had already tried and one more to make connection speeds reliably fast. The last idea was to adjust the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size up or down. I could also search or browse the help guides in the support center.
I wanted to speak with a real human, so I tried that option in the app’s Help tab. It guided me to open a ticket and told me I would get a response via email.
It took several hours to get the reply that confirmed malware protection is reputation-based. That means you’ll still need a proper antivirus app for complete protection.
Privacy and security
Windscribe only needs a username and password to create an account. Your email address is optional. All of your data is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256, so it can’t be read by anyone, even Windscribe employees.
Windscribe is located in Canada, which is part of the Five Eyes alliance. Windscribe is quick to point out that’s irrelevant if there isn’t any data to share with legal demands.
Windscribe’s transparency report shows all Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and law enforcement requests since 2018, noting that “exactly zero requests were complied with due to lack of relevant data.”
Is Windscribe right for you?
Windscribe allows you to use any of its VPN plans on an unlimited number of devices, but doesn’t allow account sharing. The free version allows privacy protection on up to 15 GB of data each month, but some good free VPNs offer unlimited data.
I like Windscribe’s user interface, and the option to build your own plan is quite unique. It might be perfect if you only need to access a few countries. Note that data is capped with this plan, so it won’t be enough for continuous VPN protection.
Windscribe Pro is good, but I found the download speeds to be inconsistent. It’s also more expensive than top competitors. The best VPN subscriptions plans offer great performance worldwide at affordable prices.